Cascade And Peaks, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Peaks lit by early morning light rirse above a Sierra Nevada wilderness cascade near timberline.
The daily routine on these backcountry photographic expeditions tends to follow a basic pattern. We’re up very early — in order to be in a good place by the time the light arrives we typically need to arise when it is still dark out and then make our way to our chosen location. There’s often an intense period of photography right around sunrise, but then things taper off as the rate of change in the light slows. We work for a couple of hours until the light becomes less spectacular, then we return to camp for breakfast followed by a midday period of mostly hanging out. We usually eat dinner in the late afternoon time frame, and then we head out once again for a few hours of photography that often end in darkness.
On this morning I had a plan to walk up a nearby route to a higher lake, where I had several potential photographs in mind. I knew that these scenes were very light dependent, so I wanted to arrive early. I set out with plenty of time… and immediately started to find myself distracted by unanticipated subjects. I stopped to photograph the inlet stream of a lake, then a pool below the trail, then this lovely section of a small creek cascading down the slope from the valley above.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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